docs: def by_col(cls, df, x, y=None, w=None, inplace=False, pvalue='sim', outvals=None, **stat_kws):
          """
          Function to compute a Moran_BV statistic on a dataframe
  
          Arguments
          ---------
          df          :   pandas.DataFrame
                          a pandas dataframe with a geometry column
          X           :   list of strings
                          column name or list of column names to use as X values to compute
                          the bivariate statistic. If no Y is provided, pairwise comparisons
                          among these variates are used instead.
          Y           :   list of strings
                          column name or list of column names to use as Y values to compute
                          the bivariate statistic. if no Y is provided, pariwise comparisons
                          among the X variates are used instead.
          w           :   pysal weights object
                          a weights object aligned with the dataframe. If not provided, this
                          is searched for in the dataframe's metadata
          inplace     :   bool
                          a boolean denoting whether to operate on the dataframe inplace or to
                          return a series contaning the results of the computation. If
                          operating inplace, the derived columns will be named
                          'column_moran_local'
          pvalue      :   string
                          a string denoting which pvalue should be returned. Refer to the
                          the Moran_BV statistic's documentation for available p-values
          outvals     :   list of strings
                          list of arbitrary attributes to return as columns from the
                          Moran_BV statistic
          **stat_kws  :   keyword arguments
                          options to pass to the underlying statistic. For this, see the
                          documentation for the Moran_BV statistic.
  
  
          Returns
          --------
          If inplace, None, and operation is conducted on dataframe in memory. Otherwise,
          returns a copy of the dataframe with the relevant columns attached.
  
          See Also
          ---------
          For further documentation, refer to the Moran_BV class in pysal.esda
          """
          return _bivariate_handler(df, x, y=y, w=w, inplace=inplace,
                                    pvalue = pvalue, outvals = outvals,
                                    swapname=cls.__name__.lower(), stat=cls,**stat_kws)